I'm
Doug Reeves, and I started and run this website. Photo at left circa 1972(ish)
- extra points for flowers on the pants. Not
exactly the deep stare, alpha male pose staring at the
camera in mirror shades with Rock You Like A Hurricane
blaringout of the speakers, but hey, it's something.
The hat said 'Mexico'.

As you might suspect, there is a buzzword for
what I'm doing here: Solopreneur.
VansAirForce.net(started back in 1996 and branded as 'VAF' online)
puts the spotlight on Van's RV kitplanes and the people who
build and enjoy them.
It's a laid back, civil, non-corporate place to
virtually hang out with other people who, like yourself, like
the idea of
leaving the Earth's surface occasionally in a Van's Aircraft RV.

If
you think this type of web site should stay online, please send
in your honor system $25USD each year. VAF
is how I put food on the table for my family. Those who
donate yearly,
along with the advertisers, quite literally put food in our mouths and
a roof over our heads. Easily an eight hour a day job,
it's spread
out over the whole 24hr day in little thirty minute bites. An unconventional career, but the perks are meaningful:

Shoes
optional / shorts above 50*F.

The airplane, and the occasional drive out to the airport, are business expenses.

No status reports.

Some background on the site:Starting
back in '97 with the
RV White Pages and some 3rd party
message board software, the site found its online
footing. Later, as the weaknesses in the message
board app became apparent, I created several Yahoo groups - one for each model to give the community a
little more flexibility. A couple of years later
when the I.T. department (of my then day job) blocked access to
all Yahoo stuff (like most companies were doing at the
time), I couldn't approve messages fast enough
for people's needs and still keep the spam out. Shortly thereafter I researched, purchased and
installed the
current forum software (and deleted the Yahoo
groups I had created). The newest incarnation of the site's forums
hopefully make the hobby, in some small way, more personal.

VAF
became my full time job in 2007.

The rules
for posting in the VAF Forums can be cliff-noted with 99% accuracy
with a simple "Don't be a D-bag", but you should take a
moment to familiarize yourself with them. These rules are
required due to the high eyeball traffic seen here...high volume
forum sites need structure due to the wide demographic makeup of
its participants. As a contrast, read the comments section
of any news site (any story) to see what happens when there are
no enforceable posting rules.

"You can stand out on a
street corner handing out $100 bills and someone will still call you an
@sshole." -- friend of Jim Pappas

There
has been a very conscious effort on my part to make everything
on the site
visible to everyone,
without requiring any kind of registration or login. While you do need to login
to the forums to actually POST a message, any
unregistered 'lurker' can
see it all. Unlike almost every other aviation
website.
I do it this way specifically to put a no-hassle spin on
the experience and to quasi-reinforce to viewers that we
represent something that is more community than clique.

For
me this hobby in its purest form is one person, one plane and
an empty airport. But there are those occasions when your
passenger makes you realize what you were put on this Earth for
(I wrote this after a flight with my son):

It is
my hope that if you come to the site regularly, and
consider yourself a regular viewer, you will adhere to the
honor system that I've requested and will send in
your yearly
$25 donation some time during the year. I have enough usernames and passwords to
keep track of, and have enough people trying to pressure
me into buying things. I don't want to be that guy.

I currently live north of Dallasw,
TXw
with my
jewelry making /
yoga instructing wife, two children (below) and chihuahua 'Moon Dog'. Above all else I care
about my wife, children, extended family and friends.
Besides all things RV, I also really like
Formula 1
racing, playing acoustic/electric guitar/bass, college football and target shooting.

Thank you for stopping by and reading this.

Kindest and best,

Doug Reeves (and family)

Our daughter and son are
pretty good sticks in a 1946 J3 Cub.
I hope you can excuse me bragging...

A more current pic...and
no flowered pants.
Doug Reeves:
Janitor at
Delta Romeo, LLC.(Andrena Wishnie photograph.)